Governor Kitzhaber: Let the people elect our transit board!

If you do use, have ever used, or ever will use public transit, particularly in the Portland metropolitan area, then YOU ARE A STAKEHOLDER IN THIS FIGHT, and should sign and promote this petition.

Despite repeated public hearings, OUR ELITE TRANSIT BOARD has agreed to further, more draconian cuts to service and major fare increases at the expense of its customers, its workers, working-class people, and the poor and transit-dependent citizens of our community. This is the latest example of the ruling elite's age-old war on the public sector. Our transit board does not answer to the people OREGON LAW ORS267 is intended to serve.

WILL YOU HELP US TO COMPELL OUR OREGON LEGISLATORS TO CHANGE THE LAW?

The law currently directs the Governor, in Salem, Oregon, to appoint our local seven sub-district directors to this area's transit board. These elite appointees typically come from well-to-do situations in business, construction, banking, and real estate, and they rarely, if ever, use local public transportation. They have no skin in the game beyond their private interests. The people's public transit alternative suffers for it.

IT IS TIME TO OCCUPY, OWN, AND OPPERATE THE PEOPLE'S TRANSIT SYSTEM OURSELVES!

Sign this petition, share it with all your neighbors, and ask them to share it with all their friends, too. Tell the Governor and Oregon Legislators to do the job we sent them to Salem to do--give us the right to call the transit board members to account for our transit systems success or failure--LET THE PEOPLE ELECT OUR TRANSIT BOARD! We the people are the workers of this community. Our transit system is an element of common in our egalitarian society and by right, ought to belong to us and not to private profiteers. Like our Public School District and our Public Utility District, our Public Transit District's governing body must be made accountable to us by direct election.

DO NOT LET CONTINUING FARE INCREASES AND SERVICE CUTS GO UNANSWERED! LET THE PEOPLE ELECT OUR TRANSIT BOARD!

I just signed the following petition addressed to you and the above Oregon Legislators and Senators. I am a concerned citizen and stakeholder in the viable and sustainable success of Oregon’s public transit systems.

It has become evident to me and my fellow petition signers that the appointed bureaucrats, as provided by Oregon Public Transit Law, ORS 267, are increasingly out of control and lacking in transparency and accountability. We want you to change the law and make our transit boards accountable to us by direct election. That’s why you were sent to Salem—to make the laws that better serve the evolving common interests our respective communities.

For more than a decade we have been experiencing more callous indifference, on the part of your appointed directing boards and system managers, to the fundamental public transit needs of every community. Instead we are burdened by their increasing penchant for the primary benefit of private contractors, especially in the construction of capital improvements, which consistently result in reduced services and increasing fares. The managers blame their workers for their own mismanagement. Your appointees conduct open hearings but do not listen. We express our concerns to no avail. We, the people, are the workers of the community. These transit systems are a common element in our egalitarian society, and by law belong to us and not to private profiteers.

These public transit districts ought to reflect us in our respective communities, just like our public school districts and public utility districts. And like public schools and utilities we, the people, must have leaders who answer to us directly. The only way to make our transit boards truly transparent and accountable is through direct election by their respective constituencies. We deserve nothing less and we expect you will agree.